Silicone-based adhesive usage is increasing especially in the health care field due to robust skin adhesion, low trauma removal, good biocompatibility and high breathability. Silicone-based adhesives are generally inert, and therefore, can be compatible to drug in adhesive (as opposed to reservoir-based) constructions for transdermal drug delivery. Industrially, adhesives for low surface energy applications, broader temperature applications and longer weathering applications are also gaining strength, which may require silicone-based adhesives. However, many silicone-based adhesives do not have strong interactions with (i.e., adhesion to) backings or substrates, which can cause the silicone-based adhesive to delaminate from the backing, leaving a coating of the silicone-based adhesive on the skin and/or object to be adhered.
Thus, backings often need to be pretreated with a chemical priming treatment in order to be used in combination with a silicone-based adhesive. Such treatments can require additional processing steps, as well as one or more of organic solvents, catalysts and initiators (e.g., photo initiators).
Although many primer coating chemistries have been developed previously, many of the chemistries rely on —Si—O—C— bonds to promote adhesion between a backing and a silicone-based adhesive. Such —Si—O—C— covalent bonds are hydrolytically unstable and thus may result in unstable bond performance upon aging.